This invention relates to a method of trimming a photoresist film and, more particularly, to a method of trimming a photoresist film, laminated to a substrate, along the edges of the substrate to facilitate further processing of the substrate-film laminate.
In the use of dry film photoresist materials, it is customary to laminate the film to a substrate which may be a circuit board or other surface to be processed. When using printed circuit boards and similar, relatively strong materials, particularly those having a well defined contour, it is customary to trim the board by running a razor blade or similar instrument along the edges thereof to cut away the excess film. In the case of fragile substrates, or substrates having an odd shape, such as is often the case in the field of microelectronics, when using silicon wafers and the like such manual trimming becomes not only tedious but also time consuming. In fact, such wafers are often damaged during trimming due to their fragility.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved method of trimming photoresist material from the edges of laminated substrates.